Operation Incursion
by Engenier17CZ
Summary: Few days after repeling Scrin invasion, humans accidentaly active Rift Generator to create a wormhole to new world. What will await them there and which side will they chose in continent-wide conflict for freedom?
1. The Beginning

**AUTOR'S NOTE: Hello and welcome in my first fanfic. I know that my writing is probalby very bad, but it cant't be helped. I appriciate all feedback and reviews. Thanks for reading and I hope you will like this. have fun.**

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 **Italy 2049, somewhere in Ground Zero, few days after victory over Scrin:**

„Hey, do NOT touch anything, we don´t know what will it do, it is a Scrin Rift Generator after all „said the engineer.

„Yes. " Replied the rifleman after giving him a look of pure boredom as he was flipping his combat knife.

Suddenly, a piece of ceiling came falling down on the control panel of the Rift Generator and nearly gave the rifleman a heart attack. After a few seconds of silence, a sudden „FUCK! "Could have been heard through the whole building.

„What is the matter Mr. Clever? "

„Well, that fucking debris activated the Rift Generator and I have no idea where the rift has appeared and where it leads, because there seems to be at least two modes of operating this building."

„Wait a second, so you are telling me that we have a wormhole at our doorstep and we don´t know where it leads to? I hope you are joking? Right? "Said a little bit frightened soldier.

„I hope I could say I do, but I don´t. "replied the engineer as he was picking up his radio.

„Base, this is engineering team 1, please respond. Over. "

„Go ahead. Over"

„We have a big problem. Over. "

„What´s the matter? Over. "

„Well, a falling debris has just activated a wormhole somewhere and we have no idea where. Also this trip here was pointless, I learned nothing new. Over. "

„Okay, please return immediately to base and tell us what happened. Over. "

„Okay, returning to base, ETA is 20 minutes. Clear. "

„Clear. "

 **30 minutes later at base:**

„So you want to say that we have a wormhole to god-knows-where in the middle of Ground zero, is that right? "Asked the base commander Maj. Karl Gottfried.

„Yes, but it has some strange properties, for example Tiberium can´t cross it, it amplifies our signal and it has constant temperature of 25 degrees Celsius. We are also building a remote controlled Surveyor to send the other side. "Replied chief scientist and engineer John Fixon.

„Well, this is going to be one heck of a week. I am going to write a report to Pentagon and prepare permission to send your Surveyor to the other side. See you later John, wish me luck. "

„I will Karl, I will. "Responded John as he moved back to his Tech Centre.

 **Two days later:**

Tens of OX-35 Transport Aircrafts could be seen over the Mediterranean Sea carrying troops and vehicles to Italy. The whole force had 500 Riflemen, 200 Rocket launcher troopers, 250 Zone Troopers, 50 MBT-6 Predators, 70 M121 Guardian APCs, 100 CC-6 Pitbulls and 5 Surveyors.

This was a new unit made for exploration of the other side of the wormhole, now known as „The Bridge". The special surveyor sent by John Fixon reported a breathable atmosphere and optimal weather for humans, so Council of GDI agreed on sending expeditionary force through The Bridge with their purpose being establishing a base and make peaceful contact with any intelligent race there if possible. In the OX-35s was a lot of soldiers with no idea where they are going or wha twill they do, but they trusted the command of GDI.

In one of the Transporters was a squad lead by 2Lt. Kate Gottfried, who is Maj. Karl Gottfried´s sister and his subordinate. Her team consisted of 12 Riflemen, 1 sniper and 2 rocket launcher soldiers. All of them came right from training, so this was their first mission in yellow or red zone.

"Soo, does anyone have an idea what are we doing here?" asked Pvt. Ross Manfres while thinking what outside looked like.

"Yes, I would like to know it too." said Pvt. Kristina Ekkehard.

"Major will tell us soon enough, so could you stop asking me the same thing again?." replied 2Lt. Gottfried and gave her new unit another look. She was a short sniper, had brown eyes and brown hair. She had mixed feelings about them. Even though they have not seen real combat, they seem to have enough imagination to think what war zone looks like. But they were new, they didn´t know what Tiberium does, and she knew that sooner or later they would get careless next to it. She doesn´t want to lose another comrade to this alien substance.

 **Flashback**

She was in sniper training with one other cadet and commander. The other cadert was doing some idiotic things.

"Hey, get away from that!" yelled her commander at his unit.

"Why? Our armor will protect us!" said her comrade as he was spinning around.

Suddenly he lost his balance and fell right on Tiberium crystal which punctured his right lung and started growing throuh him. Their commander tried to get off the crystal, but it only made him severe the lower part of other cadet and the commander stumbled back. They immidietly returned back with his legs and reported what happened.

 **End of Flashback**

This incident still haunted her dreams and gave her chills. She never wanted to see this again. Never. Soon the doors of their transport opened and they saw another 1 500 Riflemen, 800 rocket launcher troopers, 250 Zone troopers, 150 MBT-6 Predators, 230 M121 Guardian APCs, 100 CC-6 Pitbulls, 50 Mk.3 Mammoths, 25 Juggernauts, 25 RIGs and 2 MCVs.

"What the hell is this force for?!" yelled all of Kate's soldiers.

"I have no idea, but my brother may know, he is the commander here." replied Kate as she looked on the force below them. She stared in ave at all those soldiers just chatting as if this was their everyday routine. Little did they know what awaited them in next few weeks.

 **1 hour later, insde the base:**

Kate was walking to conference room, where was beginning a meeting for all commanding personel. She was a little bit ahead of schedule as she wanted to greet her brother Karl, who was elected as field commander of this operation. After she entered the room, she instantly found her brother on the other side talking to someone in commando armor. She ran throuh the room to her brother and that person. Few meters before her brother she slowed sown and prepared to scare him. But that commando has revealed her.

"Oh hello, would you like to speak to commander?" he politely asked as Karl stared to turn himself around.

"Oh hello sister, how have you been?" he asked as he hugged her.

"I was fine, and I got my first unit." she happily confessed while she prepared to kiss him.

"Oh really, I would like to meet them personaly to see who they are."

"Don't worry, they are privates straight from the Academy. But they haven't seen real combat, which is not that good."

"Hmm, they sound like interesting bunch. But let's save this for another time, the meeting is staring."

"Okay, see you later." said Kate as she was going to find her seat.

The conference took about 3 hours, and everyone there was informed about this mission. They told them the story with Rift Generator, it's two modes, The Bridge, their goal and assigned which units will be scouts, defenders of base or assault unit, if they needed one. Kate and her unit were scouts, and she was happy about that. Also the commando who talked wit her brother was commander of team, which found ideal place for their base on the other side. His name was Ethan Archer and he was a First Lieutenant, which meant he was her boss. As she was going to find her unit to tell them the news, she stumbled upon her classmate from Army Academy 2Lt. Albina Wolfgang, who was commander of her own unit of Zone Troopers.

"Albina, hi." greeted Kate.

"Oh hello there, little miss. How are you?" replied Albina

"I'm fine, thanks. and what anout you?"

"I am great, I have made my dream come true. So, I heard you are in scouting division, right?"

"Yep, and in which one are you?"

"I am in the assaul unit, so if you need help, just call us and we will do the dirty work."

"Thanks for the offer. It was good to se you again."

"Goodbye." said Albina as she walked to another corridor.

 _I was so lucky to meet her here, we could at least talk in private,_ thought Kate. After few minutes of walking and humming some tones she found her unit in their room. They were playing some card game, chating and drinking tea or coffe. They looked like bunch of children, even though they were 22. Suddenly an familiar feeling of deja vu hit her. She remembered as she and her so-called "brother" were playing cards with other kids in the orphanage where they lived. It was a yellow zone, but it was a place they could call home. But this home was destroyed when Brotherhood of NOD came and burnt it down, killing most of the orphans. They were lucky they hid in the basement, where they promised to destroy NOD by their own hands. Few days later GDI captured this city and some soldier named Tobias Gottfried. They took his name as their own and moved to orphanage in blue zone in Munich. Then in their teens they joined the Army Acadeny there and made it through. She stopped daydreaming about this and came inside.

"Attention soldiers!" said Kate as she walked inside.

The soldier formed a row and saluted.

"At ease. Now I will tell you what are we doing here. Few days ago we accidentaly opened a wormhole somewhere. The wormhole is called The Bridge and does not let Tiberium pass through. On the other side we found a habitble world. We are to go there , secure spot for our base and then we scout the surroundings. Code name of this operation is Incursion. The operation beggins at 1030 hours tomorrow. Be ready and in full gear, we are taking APCs numbered 212 and 213. That is all, dismised."

She then turned around and walkes to her room, which she shared with her brother. There she went to sleep right away as she was tired as hell. Once again the dream of the cadet that died to Tiberium growing through him haunted her. She woke up and panted heavily. On the other bed was her sleeping brother. Suddenly she had an idea to go sleep with him in his bed. So she silently walked there and layed on the bed trying not to wake her brother up. She succeded and she hugged him. She fell back asleep in this position until it was morning.

 **At morning:**

"Wakey wakey, rise and shine." somebody softly spoke in her ear, "It's time to work, sister." continued this voice. She started to open her eyes and saw her brother in his uniform and he was holding a plate.

"I made us breakfast, but I already ate mine. I'm going to my office, see you later." said Karl as he walked out of the room.

Kate got out of the bed and ate her breakfast. then she changed into her uniform and brushed her teeth. As it was 9:22, she went to armory to check her gear. She met there her whole squad, which greeted her with a salute.

"At ease" said Kate and added: "What do you think about this wormhole and otherword thing?"

"Well, we have been debating about it and thought that if we helped them, they could help us against Brotherhood of NOD. So we have a good feeling about this mission." replied a grey-haired rifleman, her second-in-command. His name is Falk Mattias. He was at least a head taller than her and has blue eyes.

"Interesting point of wiev you have there, squad. So, are you ready for whatever may be out there?"

"We are ma'am, we are." replied another one of her soldiers. His name was Engelbert Killian. He was tall, muscular, had blonde hair and green eyes.

After checking her equipment, Kate decided to put it on now, when it's not that crouded here. After putting on her gear, she went outside to meet their APC drivers.

She found them next to an egineer talking abot problems of the APC' s guns in hot enviroment because they overheat a lot.

"I am sorry but I can't help you, and even if I could, it would be too late now, you must say it earlier next time. OK?" asked the engineer.

"OK, see you later Bob." replied one of the drivers. As they turned around they spoted kate and greeted her.

"So, you are the commander of the scout unit we will be driving around? My name is Cornell Randolph, but please call me Cornell. Nice to meet you." said Cornell

"And this guy next to me is Karel Eugen." he added

"Nice to meet you, commander." said Karel.

"Well, my name is Kate Gottfried. Nice to meet you too." replied Kate and continued: "Are our vehicles ready for operation Incursion? And which one drives which APC?"

"The APCs are ready. Karel is driving APC 212 and I'm driving APC 213." replied Cornell.

 **Later:**

"Okay, attention all personel. Operation Incursion is a go, I repeat, Operation Incursion is a go. Move out, armor division! I wish you luck." said Cpt. Karl Gottfried in the radio.

"So here it comes!" yelled Kate's team in the two APCs. The convoy started moving slowly as commander allowed each unit to move out in walking speed, so that the Zone Troopers outside wouldn't fall behind. Their callsing was S-2, which meant they were second unit to cross The Bridge. In their first APC were only Riflemen, who were Pvt. Ross Manfres, Pvt. Kristina Ekkehard, Pvt. Marius Wilhelm, Pvt. Gerhard Valentin, Pvt. Engelbert Killian, Pvt. Wulf Eckheart, Pvt. Alexis Horst, Pvt. Maria Helfried, Pvt. Siegmund Leonhard, Pvt. and Matthias Wolfram. In the second APC were two Riflemen, one missle squad and one sniper. The sniper was Kate, the two Riflemen were Pfc. Falk Mattias and Pvt. Markus Hagen. The Missile squad was made from brothers Thomas and Tobias Klemens. Both were Privates. This was her own unit, her new friends.

"Listen up, missile squad. If we are to make contact, I want you to stay in the vehicle until I say you can get out, safety reasons. That is an order." said Kate.

"Yes ma'am." replied the brothers.

At the end of their little conversation, the vehicles started to move, so all soldiers looked out of the windows in anticipation what the other side looks like.

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 **Thank you for reading chapter one of Operation Incursion. I appreciate every review. See you in chapter two.**

 **I also made few changes to C &C lore, mainly in the number of people in APCs. Bye!**


	2. New World

**Hello, and welcome to second chatper of Operation Incursion.**

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As the APCs moved through The Bridge, light from edges of the wormhole blinded everyone for a brief moment. After their eyes adjusted, they all stared in astonishment as hills full of grass and forest on the far side of the field where The Bridge led. Suddenly, a voice in the radio started issuing orders.

"This is 1Lt. Ethan Archer. All scout units are to turn right and follow the dirt road after the first vehicles. All other units are to wait here for the rest of convoy. After that they will go the road we are going through right now. If anything happens, we will inform you via radio. 1Lt. Archer out."

After end of transmission, Zone Troopers marching besides their APCs stopped and moved to the side as scout team's vehicles starting speeding up after the first APC, where 1Lt. Archer was.

Thirty minutes into the ride and their met they first enemy. A giant board blocked their way and it prepared to charge at the first APC. Then, the giant boar charged at the vehicle, but its heavy machine guns fire hurt it badly and scared it away, so they continued in their ride. After another hour or so of their ride they entered a nice looking meadow with flowers blooming everywhere.

"Okay, everybody listen. I need the APCs to stay here with the Missile squads and non-commanding snipers. Everyone else will help me clear the perimeter. My squad will take north side, 2Lt. Gottfried's squads will take east and 2Lt. Peterson's squad will take south. We can leave west side because we arrived from there. Everybody move out now. Archer out." came from the radio.

After everyone Riflemen in Kate's squad got out, she said: "Everyone, I and Pvt. Engelbert Killian will take the rear, Pvt. Marius Wilhelm, Pfc. Falk Mattias will take the rear, and rest of the squad will stay between us. Riflemen, move out!"

Squad did as it was ordered and the whole formation went east, where a few rock formations were, but they looked more like ruins of some sort, but if they are, they must be ancient. As they slowly approached the rocks, Kate ordered: "Riflemen squad 1, you take right and the rest take back. I will go in the middle. Move out."

Everyone did as they were told and after few seconds of waiting Kate started to walk inside the rock formation. She found no one but spotted a tall rock which could work as a sniper tower. She climbed on top of it and behind a hill, which was approximately 1 km away she spotted a pillar of smoke. She though she will report this later and started looking at the surrounding area. There she only spotted her squad as they met on the other side of the rocks. They were chatting about something, but still were looking around them. This was all for their sector as it was only a meadow with no other cover then the rocks they were at. After few minutes of standing her soldiers were tired of standing and sat on the rocks next to them. Another half an hour happened nothing. Then they heard their radios go live.

"This is 1Lt. Archer, everybody return back to our vehicles and commanders report to me. See you soon. Over."

"Okay" said Kate, "Listen up everyone, we are returning back to our vehicles, so has anyone spotted something interesting besides of that smoke from behind that hill?"

"No ma'am. We spotted nothing and are ready to move back." replied Falk as he jumped down from the rock he was sitting on.

"Good, let's return and report. Move out."

After this their way back was full of chatting about that smoke in the distance that they saw.

 **30 minutes later, back at vehicle parking spot:**

"Well, that means we only have one side to worry about, because the other sides are blocked of by mountains. But that smoke means problems. Scout team number 2, you are to investigate the source of this smoke. If there is anyone, try to make friendly contact and help them if they would need something in your capabilities. Also our forces with those MCVs have ETA of 30 minutes, which means, 2Lt. Gottfried, that you will come to base under construction." Said 1Lt. Archer.

"Sir, yes sir!" replied Kate.

That is all, dismissed." added 1Lt. Archer as he turned away to get his sandwich.

 **Few minutes later, in APCs of Kate's scout team:**

"Listen up, everyone." started Kate, "we are going to examine the source of that smoke we saw earlier when we were securing the perimeter. Also, we will return to base under construction. We are to make a friendly contact if there is a village or town and help anyone who will need help. Any questions?" finished Kate.

"If we are to find an unfriendly contacts, are we supposed to shoot to kill?" asked Pvt. Wulf Eckheart as he loaded a magazine in his GD2 assault rifle.

"No, only in extreme cases. Anymore questions?" Replied Kate.

"Yes ma'am, there is going to be a language barrier that may cause a lot of problems, so what are we supposed to do if we meet anyone?" asked Pfc. Falk.

"Try to act as friendly as possible. Is that all?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Drivers, are we ready to move out?"

"We are." Replied both drivers as they started engines of their APCs.

"Operations underway!" said Kate in radio.

At this moment APCs moved forward and speeding up to 50 km/h. Just as they were going behind horizon, the rear APCs crew could see first CC-6 Pitbulls from main force arriving on the hill. As they were leaving their new soon-to-be base location, they started to think what could they meet on their mission.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading my story. This is a shorter chapter, but I will try to make the next one longer. And we will finaly see some action too. Bye!**


	3. The First Contact

After 1 hour of riding, they finally went over the hill they saw before. As they were getting closer to what they saw is a village, they startled few farmers who we reworking on fields of wheat or something similar. When they were 50 meters before the gates of this village, a two armed men, probably guards, crossed their way. The guards wore white overalls with grey chest area, grey gloves and black boots which reached under their knees. They also wore a metal helmet with cloth sticking out of the sides except face area which was exposed. One of they started yelling in English, which completely confused everyone in Kate's team.

"Get out of your carriages and show yourselves and state your business here!" said the guard on right. He was tall man in his thirties, had blonde hair and blue eyes.

As Kate's team got out of their APCs, they certainly scared the guards when they saw their guns. Kate saw this and started talking: "Hello, we are just passing by."

"Oh really, because this village is not on main road to Imperial capital. So I ask you again who are you? "

"As I have told, we were only passing by, but saw the smoke and came here to see if you need help."

"Oh, okay. About that smoke, we got attacked by bandits recently, so we had a few destroyed buildings. But that is of no concern to you."

"Well, we could help you in exchange for a few things. As you see here for yourself, we have weapons and we know how to use them. We would gladly help you."

"I have never saw a gun this oddly shaped, but what did you mean by "a few things". Also, who exactly are you?" asked the second guard, who was taller than the first one, had brown eyes and somehow blue hair.

"Well, you see, we are mercenaries. And by a few things, I meant information on this land." Said Kate as she looked the brown-eyed guard right into his eyes.

"And you are who, their servant?" said the guard and started laughing.

"No, she is our commander and the best sniper here." replied Pfc. Falk Mattias.

"Oh really, than excuse rudeness of my colleague. It is not typical here to have women commanding mercenaries." said the other guard.

"It's okay. So will you accept our help?"

"That is not our call to make, but we will take you to the village chief."

"Thank you." Said Kate as she indicated everyone to move behind her as she followed the guards.

 **Few minutes later, in village chief's office:**

"So you are really willing to help us with our bandit problem in exchange for information on this land?" said village chief. He was an old man with grey hair and beard and had red eyes, which surprised Kate. They were only living souls in this room, everyone else stood outside.

"We are."

"So does that mean you are from another continent?"

"Hmm. Yes, we are. So that is the reason for our information hunt."

"Okay, I hope what you told us is the truth."

"I assure you, it is. You will see." Said Kate as she put on a smirk.

After another half an hour they were debating their plan of this action with commander of guards. They came to conclusion it will be best if Kate's group stays in the middle of the village and prepares to support the guards who will be attacked. As they finished, Kate walked out of the room ant told her soldiers the plan for tonight. When she finished, Falk asked her: "Are we going to use the APCs for combat, or are we going only on foot?"

"We are going with the APCs, show them full power of heavy machine guns. Also, they might tell us more about their military, because they recognized a gun, but were not holding any, instead they have swords, axes, spears and bows. They might consider us their saviours and help us in a long shot." explained Kate as they moved to their vehicles.

They found them parked in stables for some reasons. Then, the plan was told to the drivers of APCs, who were happy to engage in combat against plain infantry with medieval weapons. Also HQ was happy about their first contact.

 **Same day at night, in center of the village:**

"Ok, listen up. Enemies have attacked the north side. Everyone prepare for anti-infantry combat. Riflemen, move out!" yelled Kate as she began to run north towards the battlefield. When they arrived, battle was already in progress. The Riflemen crouched on one knee and aimed at the bandits. Kate run past them to guard's commander to tell him they can retreat.

"Everyone, retreat!" yelled commander as he began to run back as did everyone else. At the same time the APCs arrived and started picking up bandits who were away from the main force. When all guards were behind the Riflemen, they saw bandits stop before them with eyes wide open as they looked into guns barrels.

"FIRE!" yelled Kate as she sniped someone in the crowd of bandits. Then all of the Riflemen started shooting at front lines of bandits, who fell very fast due to lack of ballistic armour. The bandits soon realised their mistake and put shield bearers first. It helped a little bit because some of the shots from GDI's rifles ricocheted. With their morale at a stable point, they started advancing towards the Riflemen. Gunners in APCs spotted this and started tearing the shield bearers apart with their heavy machine guns. But the bandits still advanced. A guard saw this, ran to his commander and told him something. The commander then nodded and all the guards ran somewhere else.

"Damn, and I hoped they could help us." Thought Kate as she tried to find and snipe bandit leader. She found him and after a quick pull of the trigger his head exploded into pieces. This however didn't stop them. The Missile squad saw this from the second APC and decided to help them. Soon, they were aiming their rocket launchers at the shields and after a few seconds a rockets flew to them.

As they exploded, they killed all bandits in the front and blew the shields up. The street once again became a killing zone. As the smoke set down, a guard with bows run behind the Riflemen and started supporting them with rain of arrows. The bandits saw this and decided to run away. As they flew, a lot of them died to gunfire, which came after them even after they left the village.

"They did it!" cheered some random guard.

"We won, we have won!" yelled second.

"Hurray for these mercenaries!" said third as the rest agreed with him.

Soon, Kate found herself in chief's office again. She could hear people praising her soldiers as their saviours. Soon, village chief came into the room and started thanking Kate for her and her soldier's work. Then came the questions from Kate. She found out that this country is called 'The Empire', is one thousand years old, is led by child emperor, whose name is Makoto. She was also told about the Revolutionary Army, Night Raid and corruption in the Capital, largest city in this Empire. They also agreed on having open trade relationship. They were also told to visit the duke of this land. She thanked the village chief for this and left the room. Outside the citizens of this village were having a victory party. She saw her soldiers answering questions which came from everyone and everywhere. Kate wanted to leave as soon as possible, but decided to let her soldiers have a little bit of fun on this party.

 **The next morning, gates of the village:**

As they were preparing to leave, a little crowd created at the gate.

"Thank you" yelled someone from the crowd.

"Please come again!" said some woman in the front.

Even when they were far away, they could still see the crowd at the gate. The ride back was peaceful and a little talk filled the air around Kate as she was trying to get some sleep before she had to do all of the reporting and paperwork.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading another chapter of Operation Incursion. I am sorry, but i will be publishing around one chapter per week. Also thanks for the reviews. Good bye !**


	4. Making Friends

„Report 2Lt. Gottfried." Said Karl to his sister in his office on her missions debriefing.

"Yes sir! At 1315 hours we began the mission. At 1415 we made first contact with inhabitants of this world. For some unknown reason they all talked English. This village is called Southstall. We found out they were attacked by bandits and decided to help to gain their trust and some information on this land. We are in empire called The Empire with capital city named Capital. It is led by very young emperor. Their technology level seems very interesting, they know guns but use medieval weapons. Also it is filled with corruption and some revolutionary movements are present. Namely the assassin squad called Night Raid and their bosses, the Revolutionary Army. We also established open trade right with them and were invited to this land's duke. That is all." Replied Kate.

"Thank you, dismissed."

Kate turned around and walked out of her brother's office. She immediately went to canteen to have something to eat and drink. Thankfully canteen was right next to the GDI's commanding officer's office. As she grabbed herself a sandwich and some tea, she went on roof of the canteen. She was looking over the base, which thanks to the premade building was built in hours, as it full of life. It was defended by two layers of defence made from Watch Towers, Guardian Cannons and at entrances were Sonic Emitters. On the north side were barracks, garages and War Factories, at west were Armouries, Tech Labs, Command Posts and Construction Yards. At south were Power Plants and few Silos. And on the east side were Airfield, one Space Command Uplink, one Ion Cannon Control and a small Space Center.

"So, what do you think of our new home for a while?" asked Karl as he sat beside Kate with his own sandwich.

"I like the view here, also the air is clean. We also have internet here, so I give it 9/10. I only miss alcohol-free beer." replied Kate with a chuckle.

"Don't worry, I have a few friends on some places in military, so I could get us some. Also this base is called Fort Jack Granger."

"Well, at least you have something for my birthday."

"If you think so." said Karl as a smirk crept on his face. "Also you and your squad can take a few days off, I will have another mission for you and a few people from your team and a different mission for the rest. You chose who goes where."

"Sounds interesting. I also know you stopped smoking, what happened?"

"Well, nothing, I just hadn't time to smoke. And I don't plan to continue as I still don't much free time." as he was talking, he stood up and started walking away leaving his sister alone on the roof.

 **Five days later:**

"Listen up." started Karl as he was briefing Kate and 1Lt. Archer. "You are to give a visit to this duke and find more information on this land. Some military information might come in handy. I chose 2Lt. Gottfried as a mediator because she made first contact. She will wear something formal and it's your job 1Lt. Archer top keep her save, she will be a VIP. In the state of emergency we will send Zone Troopers and Commandos for help. Also you will be accompanied by few of 2Lt's soldiers. Have you decided who will it be or will you tell me later?"

"I decided here, I will take Pfc. Falk Mattias and Pvt. Thomas Klemens."

"Okay, noted. Anyone have any questions?"

"What are we supposed to do if somebody shows hostile actions?" asked Archer.

"Try to eliminate them quietly. If you can't, then eliminate them normally. Something else you want to know?"

"What are we supposed to achieve on this meeting?" asked Kate.

"Try to make good first impression, find information and try to make friends. Your first goal will be localizing the Capital. Any other questions?"

After few seconds of silence Karl said: "I wish you good luck and you are dismissed."

Kate started to leave but suddenly stopped, turned around and said to Karl: "Brother, I don't have any dresses here. I thought it was one of your jokes."

"What do you mean you don't have any dress here? I told you to bring at least one because I thought something just like this might happen. So that means I will have to ask for someone's favour to burrow you a dress."

"I highly doubt anyone has a dress here."

"Well, not here, but on Earth's side of The Bridge they have at least one. I saw somebody wearing it on that press meeting. It will be here in the evening. Oh, please send me here rest of your squad. See you later my dear sister."

"Yeah, thanks. See ya!"

After this Kate left the office and walked off to tell her squad the missions they have.

 **25 minutes later, barracks:**

"Wait a second commander, if Pfc. Mattias goes with you, who will lead us?" asked Tobias Klemens.

"I don't know private, you will have to ask the commander. Also he wanted to brief you for your next mission. ASAP." replied Kate.

"Yes ma'am." said whole squad except Mattias and Thomas.

"Ma'am, I hope someone will accompany us on this mission, we won't be able to defend you in just two man squad, even more if one of us have rocket launcher." said Mattias.

"Oh, don't worry. 1Lt. Archer will accompany us and he will act as my bodyguard. You will stay in the APC and wait until we will need your help. Before you come to our help, ask HQ to send us the reinforcements they have for us."

"What will these reinforcements consist of?"

"Mainly from Zone Troopers and one squad of Commandos."

"Well, your brother really is worried about you. But who won't. You are the only one they trust from our chain of command. I hope we won't have to call them to help us."

"Don't worry, I hope too. Also please address me normally on this mission, not by rank."

"Yes ma'a…, sorry, Yes Kate, with pleasure."

"Wow, you are sooo funny. Let's just hope this will go smoothly. Right Thomas?"

"Yes Kate, I hope so."

"Well, you are dismissed. We will move out in 1830 hours. See you then." finished Kate. When she got out of barracks she spotted an armoured convoy made from APCs. They stopped and Zone Troopers started coming out. Kate put on a smile and started to walk to her room.

 **18:04, Karl's office:**

Few minutes ago arrived Kate's borrowed dress. It fit perfectly and Karl thought she looked nice and attractive. The dress was ankles-long and was dark blue. She also wore a small necklace with small fake diamond in the middle, her only childhood memento of her parents. They died in car accident when she was two. Karl's family adopted her when she reached her tenth birthday.

"So, how do I look?" asked Kate as she spun around.

"Well, you look nice. Your pendant shines like a little moon in sea of dark. I will take a photo for you, ok? Stand still!"

She stopped spinning and her brother put up his camera. After few seconds, a click could be heard and both siblings looked at the photo. Kate then started walking to the APC as her brother wished her good luck.

When she entered her APC her bodyguards were already there. They all immediately took a look at her and stared in astonishment. She looked more like a noble that soldier, but they knew looks can deceive.

"Well, you look glorious." said Falk.

"So, is everyone ready?" asked Kate as she went to seat.

"Yep, driver, get us to the party. And don't drink anything alcoholic, this applies for everyone except Kate." replied Archer as he put on his commando helmet and loaded his gun.

The APC started to come to life and moved away from the base in the direction of the village they helped a week ago.

 **2 and half hours later:**

The APC arrived to duke's little fort and before they went out, Archer said with a smile: "Let's get this party started!"


End file.
